Artists Damien Hirst and Gary Hume sent birthday cards for threatened radio station BBC 6 Music today – to register their protests at the proposed closure.

They joined the growing opposition to the axeing of the digital service – eight years old today – which was outlined last week in the BBC’s strategic review.

Cards were sent in by other high profile supporters of the station, including Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis, Primal Scream star Bobby Gillespie, Julian Barratt from The Mighty Boosh and Peter Saville, designer of famed record sleeves for bands such as New Order.

Hirst’s card features an image of his shark in formaldehyde artwork on which he had written “Happy Birthday!!! We need you”.

The station is earmarked for closure, with another digital service, Asian Network, under proposals published by BBC director general Mark Thompson.

A number of high profile names have voiced their concerns about the closure including Radiohead and David Bowie, as well as Jarvis Cocker who has a show on the station.

Former culture secretary James Purnell has also expressed his concerns about the station. The birthday cards were displayed on a Save 6 Music page on social networking site Facebook, where more than 157,000 people have signed up to the campaign.

Opponents to the plan are being asked to register their views by contacting the BBC Trust.

The Trust said it has had a “high level” of contact from the public over the 6 Music proposals although it was not able to give figures until the end of the consultation. It will also consider the level of feelings shown via petitions and online activities.

A Trust spokeswoman said: “We have had a high level of interest in the proposals from the Executive on the strategic review, both in terms of responses to our consultation and in direct correspondence to the Trust.

“We will not be giving a running commentary on the numbers for these whilst the assessment process is ongoing, as any figure given at this time would not take account of duplicate submissions or the aspect of the strategy review being addressed in these proposals. We will, however, publish these figures at the end of our process.

“As part of the process we will be taking on board all forms of audience feedback, including external petitions and Facebook groups – but it is important to highlight that in addition to considering public responses, we will also be talking to staff, industry and the Trust’s Audience Councils in reaching our final conclusions.”

The BBC was unable to give a figure for how many complaints it had received directly as it said it was still collating the data.